Have you wondered who found Machu Picchu? This amazing Inca city, which is one of the 7 wonders of the modern world, has amazed everyone, whether through stories, pictures, or visiting it in person to walk its old stone streets. But, more than just its beauty, few people know the story of how it was found again and the person who showed it to the modern world. Come with us to explore the exciting journey that took Machu Picchu from being forgotten to becoming one of the most famous wonders of humankind.
Hiram Bingham was born on November 19, 1875, in Honolulu, Hawaii, in a family of Protestant missionaries. His childhood was shaped by his parents' strict rules, which made him rebel many times. Once, he even stole 250 dollars from the family money to run away with a friend.
In 1892, his parents sent him to the famous Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, and later he went to Yale University. Without enough money for his studies, he had to do many jobs, from kitchen helper to selling sweets and books. Despite these problems, he managed to graduate from Yale in 1898. Later, he got his doctorate from Harvard University in 1905 and became a history professor.
In 1900, Bingham married Alfreda Mitchell, daughter of the rich businessman Charles Tiffany, who started Tiffany & Company. This marriage allowed him to join the American social elite and pay for his future trips. The couple had seven children, but they got divorced in 1937.
Bingham's time as an explorer started in 1906, when he took a trip to study the route of Simón Bolívar between Caracas and Bogotá. Even though he never wrote the life story of Bolívar, this experience made him very interested in exploring South America.
In December 1908, he went to the First Pan-American Scientific Congress in Santiago, Chile, where he became good friends with the President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt. When the congress ended, he decided to travel to Peru, arriving in Lima and later in Cusco. The Peruvian leaders were happy to see him and encouraged him to explore the country.
In 1909, Bingham started his first trip in Peru. He went to Cusco and looked around before going to Abancay, where he visited the Choquequirao ruins because the governor Juan José Núñez asked him to. This trip was just the start of him being very interested in the old Inca cities.
But, it was on his trip in 1911 when he made his most famous find: Machu Picchu. Led by local people, he got to the ruins covered by plants and became the first person to write a lot about them for the Western world of learning. His discovery made scientists very interested and led him to plan new trips in 1912 and 1915, with help from Yale University and the National Geographic Society.
Before his find at Machu Picchu, Bingham was on a different mission: trying to find Vilcabamba, the legendary last safe place of the Incas. Even though he tried to tell the Peruvian authorities that he didn't have much scientific experience, he was forced to leave for the Choquequirao ruins in a big group. While he was at this place, Bingham, even though he wasn't trained as an archaeologist, carefully wrote down everything around him: he took many pictures, made exact measurements of the monuments, and wrote down the writings on the walls, including the names and dates of earlier explorers like Eugenio de Sartiges (with José María Tejada and Marcelino León in 1834) and the group formed by José Benigno Samanez, Juan Rivas Plata, and Mariano Cisneros in 1861. At the end of this time, disappointed that he didn't find treasures to make his story better, he went back to Lima and later to the United States.
The direction of Bingham's explorations changed a lot in 1910, when Edward S. Harkness, who was very impressed by a draft of his last trip, helped start a new trip. This project wanted to find Vilcabamba, thought to be the last Inca capital. Getting money was hard, needing help from his wife Alfreda, the National Geographic Society, and Yale University. After almost a year of lots of planning, in 1911 the trip left from Cusco towards the Urubamba valley.
During this trip, Bingham gathered information about the last Inca capital. One night, while having drinks, he heard the key word because the sub-prefect of Cusco had drunk too much: "Huayna Picchu". This word referred to the mountain that is above the site and Bingham thought it was connected to Vilcabamba.
On July 19, 1911, the trip kept going towards the Urubamba valley, camping in Mandorpampa on July 23. This place was suggested by the head of the San Antonio Abad University of Cusco, Albert A. Giesecke. Thinking they were close to Vilcabamba, on the morning of Monday, July 24, even though the sky was cloudy and there was a light rain, Bingham entered the area. It was at that moment that he realized the amazing discovery: he was in front of a city hidden by plants, with building and engineering of Inca quality never seen before by the western world.
In his story, Hiram Bingham wrote about the surprise he felt when seeing the finely made stone walls, almost hidden by the plants, grand temples, royal houses, and a large central square. Every detail was taken with his Kodak A3 camera. During the walk, in the Temple of the Three Windows, he saw a writing made with charcoal that said the name "Lizárraga" and the date 1902. This showed that others, like the farmer Agustín Lizárraga, had visited the place much earlier.
The story of Hiram Bingham has many unknowns and things that don't quite fit together. Some people think he might have been the idea for the famous pretend archaeologist Indiana Jones, while others say that idea came from people like Sylvanus Morley.
Finding Machu Picchu made Hiram Bingham famous everywhere. But, one of the biggest arguments is that Bingham said he discovered Machu Picchu, when he actually got to the place nine years after the person who really found it: the Peruvian farmer Agustín Lizárraga. This has caused a lot of strong talks in the learning community and among the public. Also, the argument about the old things that Bingham took to Yale and the fight to bring them back has caused a lot of big talks about what his work left behind.
Even though there are these arguments, Bingham made a lasting mark on the study of old things and the history of Peru. His trips helped to spread the word about the rich Inca culture and to make Machu Picchu known as one of the wonders of the modern world.
Many are the routes that take you to Machu Picchu, but none is like the Inca Trail Tours, the most famous pedestrian path in the Americas. After flying from the capital of Perú, Lima, you will arrive in Cusco to walk for four days along a path through forests and dense fog, millenary stone steps and discovering the ruins of ancient fortifications and Inca cities, and all the time enjoying majestic views.
